Charter school proposal is being studied

Lawmakers heard hours of testimony Thursday on a bill to expand the charter school system that was introduced this week by the Senate Education Committee chairman, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.

Senate Bill 2 would lift the state's cap on the number of charters issued at any one time, make it easier for them to lease or purchase buildings from traditional public school districts, provide charter schools with some state facilities funding and create a separate charter authorizing board, stripping that duty from the State Board of Education.

Such efforts have failed to gain traction with legislators in the past, but Patrick has made school choice a key issue of this legislative session, saying too many children are on waiting lists to attend charter schools.

Speaking in opposition to the bill, he told his committee Thursday, is tantamount to “testifying against 100,000 families across Texas that have children on the wait list.”

The panel took testimony from such families and from charter operators and advocates who described how charter schools are forced to turn away thousands of students each year and to dip into their operating funds to pay for facilities needs.

“We spend a significant amount of our money and time finding facilities,” said Mark Larson, founder and CEO of KIPP-San Antonio.

His district operates four schools including one in a former Catholic school facility that Larson said the charter operator spent $500,000 to bring up to code.

But others questioned some key provisions of the bill.

Committee members Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, and Royce West, D-Dallas, both expressed concern the appointed members of the charter authorizing board Patrick proposes would leave voters with no one to hold accountable for poor decisions.

As the bill is written, the governor would appoint a majority of the members with others selected by the lieutenant governor, Texas commissioner of education and the chair of the SBOE.

Others who opposed the bill, including the Texas State Teachers Association and the Texas Association of School Administrators, said the Legislature should restore the $5.4 billion in cuts to public education made in 2011 before attempting to expand the charter school system.

Traditional public school district representatives testified against a portion of the bill that would require them to lease or sell “unused or underutilized” facilities to interested charters.

They described situations in which a district might close a school building only to reopen or repurpose it a few years later.

Patrick said such vacant buildings are the property of taxpayers and should serve students, but some speakers said voters pass bonds to build school facilities and they and their local school boards should have a say in how those buildings are used.